This is encouraging news on the front of the fight against AIDS. The number of HIV screenings continued to increase in 2022, exceeding the level of 2019, before Covid-19, a result “encouraging in terms of the dynamics of the epidemic”, even if the evolution is contrasted depending on the population, reports Public Health France on Tuesday.
In 2021, screening had started to increase again but had not yet caught up with the delay linked to Covid-19, which represented a loss of opportunity for some patients. Last year, the number of tests for HIV and three bacterial STIs continued to increase.
6.5 million HIV serologies carried out by laboratories
Some 2.6 million people have thus benefited at least once from reimbursed screening for Chlamydia trachomatis infection, 3 million from screening for gonococcal infection and 3.1 million from screening for syphilis. HIV screening activity reached a higher level than in 2019 with 6.5 million HIV serologies carried out by laboratories (compared to 6.34 million three years before).
The number of people who discovered their HIV status in 2022 was estimated between 4,200 and 5,700, numbers lower than those in 2019, which, “in a context of an increase in the volume of screening, is encouraging in terms of the dynamics of the epidemic,” notes the public health agency.
However, a “contrasting” development
However, “the evolution is contrasted depending on the populations,” she adds. Thus, the number of HIV discoveries continues to decrease among men who have sex with men (MSM) born in France: they represent 27% of HIV discoveries in 2022. This decrease observed since 2016 is probably explained by the increasing adoption of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis, preventive pill for people very exposed to HIV) in this population, underlines Public Health France. Conversely, the number of discoveries continues to increase among MSM born abroad.
More than half of the discoveries in 2022 (56%) concerned people born abroad, whether they were contaminated by heterosexual relations or by sexual relations between men, hence the importance of guaranteeing them “access to care and to intensify preventive actions towards them,” underlines the agency. “Many means are available to protect oneself and others, including PrEP which is still insufficiently used by eligible people,” commented Dr. Caroline Semaille, general director of the agency.
World AIDS Day this December 1st
On the occasion of World AIDS Day on Friday, Public Health France is deploying the second part of the “Everyone asks questions about sexuality” campaign dedicated to STIs and HIV, the objective of which is to encourage the use of combined prevention and screening.